Larry Mullen

When rock and roll plays with irony, it plays with fire. Last night, U2 played with fire at the Spectrum and the results were unforgettable. It was a multimedia extravaganza, a spectacle that deserves to take its place alongside the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense tour and last year's Pet Shop Boys' tour. It's been five years since U2 last made a pass through America. Since then, the band has virtually reinvented itself. Confused by the superstar status thrust upon them, band members retreated to Berlin and emerged with a tougher attitude.

The Man Who Would Save the World brought a long to-do list to the sold-out Wachovia Center on Saturday: Educate date-night U2 fans about the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Don a white headband that uses the Muslim crescent, the Star of David and a crucifix to spell out "CoeXisT. " Discuss how the July '85 Live Aid concert "changed [U2's] life, and set us on a course" leading to One, the organization that intends to "make poverty history. " And - lest even ardent fans get tired of the messianic preaching from a band built around the notion that rock-and-roll is not about rebellion so much as duty ("One life," the song goes, "you got to do what you should")

We can't fault the Irish supergroup U2 for resting on their laurels. Their current album "Achtung Baby" bristles with cutting-edge industrial and hip-hop flourishes, and seems more a personal expression, less their traditional chest-beating quest to save the world. Even more startling is the transformation that five years absence has had on their stage persona. U2's new Zoo TV concert show, which surfaced at the Spectrum last night, is the busiest mixed media event since David Bowie's "Glass Spiders" tour, and the antithesis of the stripped bare, "men and their music" vibe that U2 used to lay on us. During the first 40 minutes of last night's show, as the band hit us hard with "Achtung Baby" material, the foursome virtually hid in the shadows, and let the big-screen TV imagery concocted by their artistic mentor Brian Eno tell the tales.

So the Big Band has finally made it to the big screen. You can't blame U2 for wanting a home-movie souvenir of 1987, its year of pop-world conquest. The year it sold 13 million copies of The Joshua Tree. The year it was on the cover of Time, Rolling Stone and Musician simultaneously. The year it grossed $29 million, according to Forbes magazine. Prior to that, the Irish rock quartet was always on the margins of commercial success. It first became known as a purveyor of reverential rock and roll that made statements, was epic in scope and therefore was perfectly suited for performance in stadiums, yet had the feel of the "underground.

"Let me in the sound, meet me in the sound, let me in the sound!" Bono repeats, insists, and implores over chugging guitars on U2's "Get on Your Boots," the first single from No Line on the Horizon (Interscope . ), due in stores Tuesday. Four years after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the biggest band in the world has returned with an album recorded in New York, London, and Morocco. Two cuts after "Boots," on "FEZ - Being Born," the indefatigable Irishman is at it again, this time with the same words echoing out from a textured organic-electronic mix. It's as if the owner of the most fulsome foghorn in rock - who said to me in 2007, "I'm sick of the sound of my own voice" - is being forced to fight for room in the sonic space being created by the other boys in the band.

To call the sellout crowd at U2's Saturday-night concert at the Spectrum enthusiastic would be a gross understatement: Borrowing Otis Redding's description of the folks at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival, they were "the Love Crowd. " They danced to songs by the Beatles, mounted human waves around the arena and knowingly anticipated that the end of John Lennon's version of "Stand By Me" would signal the entrance of the idealistic Irish quartet. By then, the fans were on their feet and cheering, but even that didn't prevent the crowd from emitting a collective sigh when the spotlights finally caught the object of its affection.

If U2's 13 million-selling 1986 LP The Joshua Tree held out any sense of promise, it was that rock and roll could still fill up vast space, communicate important themes, conjure up something that is fundamentally moving and succeed at it on a grand scale. Maybe it wasn't as shoot-from-the-hip direct as Chuck Berry. But in its transcendent, postured way, Joshua Tree-era U2 defined late-'80s rock and roll. Now, it seems, the band is reaching outside its usual influences, attempting to grab hipness wherever it lives, corporate-takeover style.

U2 wants to have its irony and eat it, too. "This is where we live, this is where we work, and this is where we pray," said Bono at Franklin Field on Sunday, before throwing his ample lung power behind the romantic anthem "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. " "This is our church, made up of bits and pieces of America. " Behind him stood the oversized altar of the Irish rockers' "PopMart" tour, whose Philadelphia stop was the first-ever public concert at the University of Pennsylvania football stadium.

Dan Donoghue wasn't going to let a little tornado keep him from seeing Bono. So as a tornado ripped through this Central Florida town on Tuesday, causing more than $400,000 in damage but injuring no one, you'd have found ol' Dan outside the Lakeland Civic Center, hunkered down in his doorless red Jeep. The arena is where U2 has rehearsed since Feb. 20 in preparation for tonight's launch of the Zoo TV Tour, the Irish band's first American foray since 1987. "It was raining really hard," said Donoghue, 22, of Clearwater.

TODAY AND Sunday, May 22, will be Beautiful Days for Philly fans of the Irish rock group U2, which will play at the Wachovia Center as part of the Vertigo Tour. In March, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. Deservedly so. As far as rock bands go, U2 deserves to be on Mount Rushmore, along with the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles were the musical equivalent of Baseball's Sandy Koufax - six or seven dominant years of musical genius. U2 is more like Steve Carlton or Warren Spahn - consistent excellence over 22 years.

Larry McMullen brought the city streets and neighborhoods in powerful, often heartbreaking, prose to the readers of the Philadelphia Daily News as a columnist for 23 years. He had the knowledge, the sensitivity, and, yes, the love, to capture in simple yet compelling language the bustle and lore of the streets, the people, the smells, the clamor, and passion of the rowhouse ambience - because that's where he came from. "If I had my choice, Larry would be writing a column for us until the last rowhouse in Philly fell down," former Daily News editor Zachary Stalberg wrote when Mr. McMullen took an early retirement in 1993 at the age of 59. " 'Best of Philly' never picked him as the city's top columnist, and many journalists found his stuff irrelevant.

LARRY McMULLEN brought the city streets and neighborhoods in powerful, often heartbreaking prose, to the readers of the Daily News as a columnist for 23 years. He had the knowledge, the sensitivity and, yes, the love, to capture in simple yet compelling language the bustle and lore of the streets, the people, the smells, the clamor and passion of the rowhouse ambience - because that's where he came from. "If I had my choice, Larry would be writing a column for us until the last rowhouse in Philly fell down," former Daily News editor Zachary Stalberg wrote when Larry took an early retirement in 1993 at age 59. " 'Best of Philly' never picked him as the city's top columnist, and many journalists found his stuff irrelevant.

"Let me in the sound, meet me in the sound, let me in the sound!" Bono repeats, insists, and implores over chugging guitars on U2's "Get on Your Boots," the first single from No Line on the Horizon (Interscope . ), due in stores Tuesday. Four years after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the biggest band in the world has returned with an album recorded in New York, London, and Morocco. Two cuts after "Boots," on "FEZ - Being Born," the indefatigable Irishman is at it again, this time with the same words echoing out from a textured organic-electronic mix. It's as if the owner of the most fulsome foghorn in rock - who said to me in 2007, "I'm sick of the sound of my own voice" - is being forced to fight for room in the sonic space being created by the other boys in the band.

The Man Who Would Save the World brought a long to-do list to the sold-out Wachovia Center on Saturday: Educate date-night U2 fans about the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Don a white headband that uses the Muslim crescent, the Star of David and a crucifix to spell out "CoeXisT. " Discuss how the July '85 Live Aid concert "changed [U2's] life, and set us on a course" leading to One, the organization that intends to "make poverty history. " And - lest even ardent fans get tired of the messianic preaching from a band built around the notion that rock-and-roll is not about rebellion so much as duty ("One life," the song goes, "you got to do what you should")

TODAY AND Sunday, May 22, will be Beautiful Days for Philly fans of the Irish rock group U2, which will play at the Wachovia Center as part of the Vertigo Tour. In March, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. Deservedly so. As far as rock bands go, U2 deserves to be on Mount Rushmore, along with the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles were the musical equivalent of Baseball's Sandy Koufax - six or seven dominant years of musical genius. U2 is more like Steve Carlton or Warren Spahn - consistent excellence over 22 years.

The U2 discography is filled with impulsive flings followed by acts of contrition. After the thundering The Joshua Tree brought its "righteous" rock into the global spotlight in 1987, U2 worked to modulate the fury and bring its songs back down to earth. That led to more compact, traditional compositions, such as "Angel of Harlem," written for the partly live Rattle and Hum, released the next year. Now, after the zany, zoned-out electronic explorations of 1993's Zooropa and 1997's Pop, considered by many loyalists to be a particularly bad creative patch, the Irish foursome returns with an odd assortment of mealymouthed equivocations and dim homilies it calls All That You Can't Leave Behind (Interscope . 1/2)

U2 wants to have its irony and eat it, too. "This is where we live, this is where we work, and this is where we pray," said Bono at Franklin Field on Sunday, before throwing his ample lung power behind the romantic anthem "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. " "This is our church, made up of bits and pieces of America. " Behind him stood the oversized altar of the Irish rockers' "PopMart" tour, whose Philadelphia stop was the first-ever public concert at the University of Pennsylvania football stadium.

We can't fault the Irish supergroup U2 for resting on their laurels. Their current album "Achtung Baby" bristles with cutting-edge industrial and hip-hop flourishes, and seems more a personal expression, less their traditional chest-beating quest to save the world. Even more startling is the transformation that five years absence has had on their stage persona. U2's new Zoo TV concert show, which surfaced at the Spectrum last night, is the busiest mixed media event since David Bowie's "Glass Spiders" tour, and the antithesis of the stripped bare, "men and their music" vibe that U2 used to lay on us. During the first 40 minutes of last night's show, as the band hit us hard with "Achtung Baby" material, the foursome virtually hid in the shadows, and let the big-screen TV imagery concocted by their artistic mentor Brian Eno tell the tales.

When rock and roll plays with irony, it plays with fire. Last night, U2 played with fire at the Spectrum and the results were unforgettable. It was a multimedia extravaganza, a spectacle that deserves to take its place alongside the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense tour and last year's Pet Shop Boys' tour. It's been five years since U2 last made a pass through America. Since then, the band has virtually reinvented itself. Confused by the superstar status thrust upon them, band members retreated to Berlin and emerged with a tougher attitude.

Dan Donoghue wasn't going to let a little tornado keep him from seeing Bono. So as a tornado ripped through this Central Florida town on Tuesday, causing more than $400,000 in damage but injuring no one, you'd have found ol' Dan outside the Lakeland Civic Center, hunkered down in his doorless red Jeep. The arena is where U2 has rehearsed since Feb. 20 in preparation for tonight's launch of the Zoo TV Tour, the Irish band's first American foray since 1987. "It was raining really hard," said Donoghue, 22, of Clearwater.